In the ODD Gallery: Tammy Salzl

 

TAMMY SALZL (MONTRÉAL, QC) | Entitlement

September 25 – November 13, 2009

Opening Thursday, September 24 | Artist Talk 7pm | Reception 8pm

The ODD Gallery is pleased to present Entitlement, a suite of paintings and mixed media works by nationally renowned Montreal-based artist Tammy Salzl.

Over the past number of years, Salzl has been creating and exhibiting an ever-growing series of lush, highly-individualized works that locate their own space within the historically-laden tradition of figurative painting. Her practice embraces both the promises and challenges of her chosen media—the expectation of seduction, tension and beauty as well as the formal demands of technique, craft and representational acumen. For Salzl, ideas of domesticity, ritual, sexuality, fear, family and interpersonal power dynamics become crucial entry points into exploring the construction of individual identity and psyche.

With Entitlement, a selection of recent works and brand new compositions done as Artist in Residence at the Klondike Institute of Art & Culture, Salzl addresses the relationship between civilization and nature, our intrinsic yet complicated relationship with other species and the environmentUnraveling Aristotle’s ideas of Scala Natura (the “Great Chain of Being”) where the human male is placed at the top of the ladder of natural perfection with sea urchins at the bottom, Salzl’s exhibition works to challenge this hierarchical structure which holds powerful influence over our thinking today.

TAMMY SALZL was born in Edmonton and moved to Montreal in early 2008 in search of adventure, new life experiences and Sucre à la crème. Her work has been exhibited in solo exhibitions in Toronto, Montreal and Edmonton. She is the recipient an Alberta Foundation for the Arts grant, and other residencies include the Banff Centre for the Arts and a spring 2010 grant and residency at the Vermont Studio Center. Salzl has an upcoming group exhibition at the Douglas Udell gallery in Edmonton, and is a finalist in the 2009 Kingston Prize, Canada’s National Portrait Competition, which will be touring Canada.